The Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu
We have had a brilliant four days exploring the sacred valley.
Day 1: pick up at 7.00am from our hotel in Cusco, in a mini van with driver and guide on a touring transfer to our next hotel in the wonderfully-named Ollantaytambo. We left most of our luggage in Cusco and embarked with just a small backpack each to last us for 3 nights/4 days. Our first stop was at the Incan site of Pisac (altitude 3,300m) with the mountainsides all around covered in terraces for growing crops.
Then on to the rather extraordinary salt pans at Maras. These have been in use since Incan times and still provide most of the salt for the Cusco region. The pans are fed from a saltwater stream, which in itself seems pretty unusual to us.
We had missed the crowds at Pisac, thanks to the early start, but certainly found them at Maras. However, after a lunch stop we arrived at Moray to find it totally deserted. It’s a beautiful site, and the consensus appears to be that it was used by the Incas to experiment with their crop planting and to accustom plants to changes in altitude by moving them up through the terraces over a number of years. The temperature and conditions at the bottom are apparently significantly different to the top.
Our final stop of the day was at Ollantaytambo, where we visited the archaeological site before being dropped to our hotel. As usual with the Incans, the site is at considerable altitude (2,800m) and steeply terraced so lots of climbing to get to the top and some wonderful views across to their granaries on the opposite side of the valley once there.
On arrival, we found our hotel for the next two nights was actually on the platform of the station from which trains depart for Machu Picchu. We knew it was close to the station, but not that close!! Turned out to be great fun, as each train arrival and departure comes with considerable fanfare.
Day 2: a rest day, with nothing much planned. After a wander around the lovely little town of Ollantaytambo, we had booked the Pachamanca lunch at our hotel. The hotel has an organic farm, a coffee roastery and a distillery and we were shown all of this before being given lunch cooked in the ground on hot stones. It was all delicious, and washed down with Chica Morada, a non-alcoholic drink resembling Ribena but made from corn.
After that, a lazy afternoon in hammocks in the peaceful gardens with our Kindles….
Day 3: our Inca trail. We had booked to do a one-day Inca trail, having decided the four-day version would use too many days of our 3-week break and might be tough for us in terms of the altitude - plus we’d be camping for 3 nights! On a grey morning, we left by train at 6.40am and after about an hour got off the train to start our trek.
Despite it being ‘only’ 12 km and 800m of elevation gain, we found it quite hard going - a combination of altitude, endless steep steps, humidity and slippery conditions under foot. But we were provided with a delicious lunch halfway all carried up by porters and cooked on a sort of BBQ.
We also had the privilege of seeing the Incan site of Winay Wayna, which is only accessible via the trail and therefore not seen by most visitors to Machu Picchu…
…and finally had the satisfaction of arriving via the Sun Gate and getting our first sight of Machu Picchu.
Day 4: having spent the night in the little town of Aguas Calientes, 30 mins by bus/400m in altitude down the mountain from the site, we were up for a 5.30 start to get up to Machu Picchu before the worst of the crowds. It was definitely worth it - it is the most extraordinary place in the most extraordinary location and after a grey day 3, the weather on day 4 was spectacular. I will let the photos speak for themselves.
